Motor-driven dental treatment devices have been used professionally, by dentists and dental hygienists, for a long time, and more recently they have been available for home use, and in portable forms using batteries that may be rechargeable. Examples are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,029,451; 3,145,404; 3,195,537; 3,220,039; 3,258,802; 3,275,919; 3,739,416; 3,757,419; 3,802,420; 3,921,298; 3,939,599; and 4,004,344. The prior devices provide a single form of motion; generally a rotatable brush or gum treatment tool is available; in some, tools for various purposes are available interchangeably. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,029,451 shows a dental tool 39 which can be formed for cleaning teeth or for gum massage, but in either case it rotates on a shaft 38; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,802,420 has as its object to provide a portable rotary hygiene device which is capable of removably mounting additional rotary work heads. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,848,336 a portable professional dental instrument shows provisions for interchanging prophylaxis tools and drills.
Dental stimulators are devices intended to be inserted between proximal surfaces of two adjacent teeth. The tapered rubber or plastic tip at the end of a toothbrush handle is a familiar example, which is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,141,969. Some have proposed to discharge cleaning fluids through an inter-proximal stimulator or massage implement; examples are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,187,560; 3,199,510; and 3,391,696. These are non-rotating devices for hand use only. Blasi U.S. Pat. No. 3,195,537 (mentioned above) shows a scheme for dispensing a dentifrice through a power driven rotary tooth cleaner and gum stimulator.